Teacher writing on chalkboard.Christopher Katsarov / THE CANADIAN PRESS

BY ROBERT SMOL, GUEST COLUMN

As my fellow Ontario teachers kink and coddle themselves into an orgy of frenzied deprivation over Premier Doug Ford’s impotent stance on the sex-ed curriculum, a far more intimate issue to our professional virility has been consistently exposing itself.

An issue that needs our attention far more than the appropriate age to discuss the underlying sexual points I just mentioned.

Last month, the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) released the results of its survey on violence against teachers, confirming physical and verbal attacks on teachers are reaching epidemic proportions.

According to the CTF, rates of violence (verbal and physical) against teachers range from a disturbing 41% to an apocalyptically high 90%. Perhaps not surprising, the teachers most susceptible to violence were female teachers, as well as those working with special education students. Here in Ontario, a survey done last year by my union (Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association) found 60% of teachers have personally experienced violence on the job.

Understandably, those who still harbour memories of orderly, respectful classrooms where the teacher’s authority was rarely, if ever challenged may wonder what is going on here. And yes, we should wonder whatever happened to the principal’s authority, that ominous disciplinary brick wall bringing temporal damnation to unruly disrespectful students.

Well those days, at least for now, are over. As a society we have collectively chosen to substitute an older, substantive, authority centered learning system for more of a namby-pamby “student-centered,” no-fault, no-fail learning system. One that is naively top-heavy on empowerment of students but horribly lacking in student responsibility and consequences. And when it comes to discipline, today’s younger principals increasingly act more like “executive guidance counsellors,” mollycoddling aspiring student thugs and miscreants with meaningless inspirational “talks” rather than consequences.

Even worse, these discipline-averse “hug-a-bully” principals are not at all above actively taking the side of the violent student or trying to rationalize student violence even when the evidence against the student is overwhelming.

In such a permissive environment, even the most cerebrally challenged school bully can see it crystal clear. The school will not assign consequences; the principal does not care or is acting like my friend. Therefore, I can get away with punching, pushing, groping my teacher again and again.

Therein lies the source of the problem: permissiveness and paltry principals.

However the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, while appearing genuinely concerned over the rates of violence against teachers, has got it wrong when it comes to the solution. They would have us believe that it is chronic funding shortfalls, and lack of resources that is the main cause of the epidemic of violence against teachers.

No teacher, including myself, would dispute the fact that more special education resources, assistive technologies and learning resources and options for students would enhance their learning experience.

But to imply that the chronic lack of these resources is the cause of the epidemic of violence against teachers is simply wrong.

While not the intention of the CTF, this approach effectively takes the blame away from the students and their enablers and assigns it to our increasingly unfulfilled wish list of resources.

Far too many teachers are extremely reluctant to formally report acts of violence to school administration and police and demand action by school authorities. Too many of my fellow teachers seem professionally wired with an absurdly illogical sense of sacrifice, submission and self-guilt when they experience violence.

Yes, I know, if every legal act of violence, big and small, was aggressively reported in writing and pursued by every teacher, wherever and whenever it happened, then the principals, superintendents and trustees would be absolutely overwhelmed.

Having to wear, rather than dismiss, the problem they would be faced with no other choice but to comply with their legal obligation to protect teachers from violent students. Recent legislation dealing with violence and harassment in the workplace would give them no other alternative.

Teachers make education happen and it is our responsibility to take a stand and end this growing epidemic before it further occupies our jobs and our lives.

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